Delete duplicate songs in iTunes

How do i find and delete duplicate songs in iTunes? I found the "show exact duplicate items" under the View drop down, but it is greyed out and I cannot click on it? Anyone can help me?
Thank you so much.

What if you don't have any duplicate songs, this might be the problem, even before you hit that Menu iTunes knows if there are duplicates, if there are none I guess it's greyed out.
Oh, and in mine it says "Show Duplicate Songs", not "Show Exact Duplicate Items".

I have a large number which list as exact duplicates, is there any easy way on the Mac to automatically process the list? I found a vbs script but alas I am not on Windows.... or is that hot damn I am not on Windows?

However, there are reasons why you may want to keep some duplicates. iTunes considers items duplicates if the song name and artist fields match. They may be from different albums, have different lengths or bitrates, be different file types, be live or studio versions, etc. There is no software that can make all those determinations for you. The safest method of dupe deletion is manual. With any other method, you run the risk of deleting something you didn't intend to delete.

However, there are reasons why you may want to keep some duplicates. iTunes considers items duplicates if the song name and artist fields match. They may be from different albums, have different lengths or bitrates, be different file types, be live or studio versions, etc. There is no software that can make all those determinations for you. The safest method of dupe deletion is manual. With any other method, you run the risk of deleting something you didn't intend to delete.

Click to expand...

That, and you don't want to make albums incomplete. There are cases where a duet of two singers is on albums of both singers, so deleting one song means you have one incomplete album. Or you have an album of an artist, and a "best of" album, you would want them both complete.

That, and you don't want to make albums incomplete. There are cases where a duet of two singers is on albums of both singers, so deleting one song means you have one incomplete album. Or you have an album of an artist, and a "best of" album, you would want them both complete.

Click to expand...

Agreed , usually the eq and and sometimes the mix is different.
I have a bunch of ABBA compilations and I was thinking of deleting the duplicates but after listening to quite a few I noticed big differences in E.Q. and mix on most tunes.

I went to my laptop and removed (hide in the cloud) a play-along music book with 150 tracks.
I still have it on my desktop but it's no longer in the cloud.

I haven't read this whole thread so apologies if this has already been said. If you want to solve this problem of duplicates in iTunes, don't bother downloading all these rubbish programmes that promise to fix it for you, like i did. Just un-install itunes and re-install it again. It really is that simple. Took me a stressed out couple of nights to work that one out!

I haven't read this whole thread so apologies if this has already been said. If you want to solve this problem of duplicates in iTunes, don't bother downloading all these rubbish programmes that promise to fix it for you, like i did. Just un-install itunes and re-install it again. It really is that simple. Took me a stressed out couple of nights to work that one out!

Click to expand...

Read the thread. Uninstalling/reinstalling won't get rid of duplicates.

I'm trying to think if there was anything else that i did for this to work for me. All i can of is that i deleted EVERYTHING from my library first before reinstalling. ANyway it worked and I'm so happy about it that i registered here to mention it!

MacRumors attracts a broad audience
of both consumers and professionals interested in
the latest technologies and products. We also boast an active community focused on
purchasing decisions and technical aspects of the iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Mac platforms.